A variety of bio-chips is known in the art. Typically a bio-chip includes a substrate upon which an array of test sites may be defined, the number of sites ranging from a thousand to ten thousand or more on a bio-chip that measures perhaps a few cm by a few cm. Various experiments may be carried out at the various sites, e.g., using reagents, and frequently the bio-chip will be moved, manually or robotically during experiments or testing.
Robotic repositioning of bio-chips is preferred in that such manipulation is generally more accurate than manual repositioning, and can be carried out more rapidly. Understandably more rapid manipulation of bio-chips is desired in that more experiments can be carried out per unit time.
Although several prior art holders can retain multiple bio-chips, such holders frequently have shortcomings. For example, Marsh Bio Products, Inc. of Rochester, N.Y. 14610 produces the so-called DR1205 reservoir. This holder provides channels for twelve slides but requires a relatively high volume, 5 ml, of reagent per channel. Since cost of reagents can be high in various experiments, it is desired to reduce the amount of reagent needed per retained bio-chip. Other manufacturers provide holders to retain bio-chips, which holders are fabricated from expensive material, for example stainless steel. Too often, prior art bio-chip holders fail to fully protect the active surface of the bio-chip. Understandably, failing to adequately protect the bio-chip can affect the nature and quality of the test results. Various prior art bio-chip holders are configured such that robotic manipulations including microtiter formatting, automatic filling/draining of channels, automatic stacking of holders cannot readily be accomplished. Further, various prior art bio-chip holders do not provide an independent channel for each retained bio-chip, which omission can result in cross-contamination.
As such, there is a need for a fixture that can retain one or more bio-chips during various phases of experimentation, which fixture permits robotic movement such that parallel processing of bio-chips retained therein can be carried out. Further, such fixture preferably should provide an independent channel or well for retained bio-chips to minimize cross-contamination, and preferably should require a relatively small amount of reagent per bio-chip. Such holder should provide a mechanism by which each well may rapidly be filled or emptied with a liquid of interest. Such fixture preferably should be made of a relatively inexpensive material, and should robustly protect bio-chips retained therein.
The present invention provides such a fixture, and a method of retaining bio-chips while permitting manual and/or robotic manipulation of the bio-chips. Further the present invention can accommodate standard glass microscope slides as well and can facilitate manual and/or robotic manipulation of such slides for a variety of applications.